For many years (24 to be exact) my home electronics test bench has been set up in our study, sharing space with our home office computer desk and my son's computer desk. As the photo below illustrates, I have plum run out of space. There is not enough open space on my desk to set up anything bigger than a small dev kit. Components and test equipment and projects underway, but not finished, are accumulating under, beside and behind the desk. The space is so cluttered that I have to carefully untangle test leads and scope probes every time I go to make a measurement. The clutter is also dangerous. My hot air soldering station is covered with parts and sits very close to my computer speakers and a stack of test equipment. Test leads have been singed accidentally as they get draped over idling soldering irons or hot air tools. It is time for a fresh start in a new space.
We are renovating our basement this fall and I have secured a good sized space for a new general purpose work room, including a generous allocation for an electronics development area. The space is going to be 11' 6" by 15' (about 3.5 m by 4.6 m). I have been looking at a variety of professional workbenches, like this bench from IAC available from Newark. There are a lot of experienced hobbyists and professionals in the Element14 community with uncounted years of experience working in electronics. As I am in the process of thinking about how to set up my new space, I thought it would be great to invite suggestions and advice from the collective wisdom of Element14 members on what might be nice to put into a brand new, purpose built electronics work space.
My 36 years of professional and hobbyist experience in electronics provides me with a vision of what I'd like in my new workspace, but that doesn't mean I can't learn from the experience and vision of others. So, I invite your thoughts, suggestions and wisdom. What sort of bench arrangement would you recommend? How would you organize the test equipment? What about lighting? Parts storage? I can't commit to following though on any ideas, but it will be great to read what others think a great workspace could look like.
